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As ultrabook makers seek stronger sales, some opt for low cost

Ultrabook suppliers are still dealing with pesky market and profitability issues, according to a CNET source and two reports. And some will turn to low-cost designs as a result.

"The ultrabook adoption during the holiday season was ugly," an industry source, who speaks to ultrabook suppliers, told CNET. That source was speaking about sales for one particular ultrabook vendor.

The market for all ultrabook suppliers, however, is still challenging. "You've got a down market on the eve of a new operating system (Windows 8) at a price point that's fairly robust (high)," said the … Read more

Acer shows off new ultrabooks and laptops at CeBit

Two new laptops from Acer have turned up at the annual CeBit trade show held in Hanover, Germany.

The Acer Aspire Timeline Ultra M3, in addition to having a really long name, is a 15-inch ultrabook (meaning it meets Intel's specifications for using that trademarked term), and it breaks new ground by including a discrete graphics card and an optical drive. Acer says of the system:

The latest Timeline series is slimmer and lighter than its predecessors (measuring just 20 mm thin), without compromising its state-of-the-art performance. In fact, the new Aspire Timeline Ultra M3 raises the bar by being the first Ultrabook with dedicated NVIDIA GeForce GT640M graphics for enhanced content creation and consumption.

Acer reveals sexy Liquid Glow ICS smartphone

If you've been eagerly waiting for a gluttonous helping of Ice Cream Sandwich, prepare to tuck in. The new Acer Liquid Glow smartphone is the latest in what is sure to be a parade of devices running Android 4.0 announced at Mobile World Congress.

While I'm not exactly sure why this phone is called Liquid Glow, Acer does say the gadget is targeted at, "today's fun-seeking, social-networking youth." I suppose that's apparent from the Liquid Glow's three snazzy hues; Sakura Pink, Alpine White, and Cat's Eye Black. Funny, I thought cat's eyes were wildly colored. … Read more

Ultrabooks with hybrid drives could start at $600

Lower-end ultrabooks equipped with hybrid disk drives could hit price points as low as $600, according to an Asia-based report.

Because hybrid HDDs--which combine a small-capacity solid-state drive with a standard hard disk drive--cost about 50 percent less than solid-state-only drives, PC makers will opt for hybrid drives in lower-end models, according to a report Wednesday in DigiTimes. This will send prices below $700.

Ultrabooks--skinny Windows 7 laptops that mimic the portability of tablets--currently bottom out at about $800. That includes the Toshiba Portege Z835, now priced as low as $799.99 at retail. The Z835 uses a 128GB SSD, … Read more

Ultrabooks are underpricing Apple at retail--and they'd better

Ultrabooks from Toshiba, Acer, and Samsung remain at relatively low prices at major retailers like Best Buy compared to analogous offerings from Apple.

Prices for the 13-inch Toshiba Portege (Z835-P330) and 13-inch Acer Aspire S3 (S3-951-6646) have stayed at $799 for many weeks since they were announced last fall. Currently, both are listed at Best Buy for $799.99.

Comparable 13-inch MacBook Air laptops from Apple are typically priced a few hundred dollars more.

Apple is an important benchmark because the ultrabook category was created, in part, to compete with the increasingly popular MacBook Air. And an analyst said this week … Read more

How to use the Chromebook photo editor

The Chromebook photo editor is not a Chrome app, as you might think. It's integrated into the file manager. To use it, launch the file manager by hitting Ctrl+M, then navigate to where your photo is located.

Once you click on the photo you want to edit, two options will appear in the lower right-hand corner--View and Edit and Delete. Click on View and Edit to launch the photo editor.

You can allow Chrome OS to autofix the image or crop it.

You can also change the brightness and contrast, or change the orientation of the image.

That'… Read more

Acer Iconia Tab A200 review: The 'Toll Road' of Android tablets

As I said last week in my First Take, there's really nothing special about the Acer Iconia Tab A200. Not that it does anything wrong, but what it does do just isn't especially noteworthy.

It really is the Toll Road of Android tablets. It gets the job done, but not much else. What's a "Toll Road," you ask? Actually, he's an "Expendables" character you likely don't even remember being in the movie.

An admittedly flawed movie, "The Expendables" is filled with a team of colorful and memorable characters. At … Read more

Is the Acer A200's utter dullness justified by its $330 price? (First Take)

Editors' note: The Acer Iconia Tab A200 ships with Honeycomb, but, according to Acer, will receive an over-the-air update to Ice Cream Sandwich within the next few days. We'll post a full review of the tablet after Ice Cream Sandwich hits, but in the meantime, check out this exhaustive first take.

There's really nothing special about the Acer Iconia Tab A200. Sure, it's ICS-upgradable, but both the Motorola Xoom and Asus Transformer Prime have already beat it to the punch.

Also, while it features the bare minimum capabilities of all other post-Honeycomb Android tablets, it actually loses two features many Android tablet owners take for granted: a rear camera and an HDMI port.

Still, it can be yours for only $330 (for 8GB; $350 for 16GB), making it the cheapest non-contract buy-in to Honeycomb/ICS yet.… Read more

Acer CloudMobile Ice Cream Sandwich phone ready for MWC

Well, well, well. Acer has already won an award for a phone that few in the mobile industry knew existed.

The electronics maker issued a press release today sharing its iF design award for the Acer CloudMobile, an Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich phone that the company plans to launch later this month at Mobile World Congress.

Although it'll pack Android's newest operating system, Acer isn't positioning the CloudMobile device as just another Android phone. Instead, expect to hear a pitch about securely grabbing personal information through AcerCloud, an online home for photos, music, and documents … Read more

PCs take the lead at CES 2012: Laptops, desktops, and hardware

LAS VEGAS--It's a rare CES for which most of the digital ink spilled is about computers and hardware, rather than giant televisions. But 2012 was just such a year, thanks to the never-ending drumbeat of Intel's ultrabook platform.

Yes, ultrabooks again It seems like you couldn't walk more than a hundred steps across the velvety carpet of the CES show floor without running into a giant ULTRABOOK or WINDOWS 8 sign. The first official ultrabook-designated laptops (it's an Intel marketing term) arrived during the 2011 holiday season, but CES 2012 was a coming-out party for a host of new designs from nearly all manufacturers.

The laptops ranged from the diminutive (the Acer Aspire S5) to the large and bold (the HP Envy 14 Spectre), and to the copycat (the MacBook-Air-alike Dell XPS 13). And 14- and 15-inch models, some with optical drives, dedicated graphics, and hybrid solid-state/hard drives, have begun to blur a category only in its nascency, leading us to ask if the category will suffer from unnecessary mission creep.

Will that mean that consumers will have a hard time identifying what an ultrabook is, or even feel the category has become overhyped and overexposed by the end of this year? Ultrabooks may be the industry's next great hope, judging by Intel's ultrabook-obsessed keynote presentation, but that doesn't mean consumers are never going to want anything different.

But not just ultrabooks Only a handful of other, non-ultrabook laptops really stood out.… Read more